Latest news
Awareness campaign launches
Full range of digital billboard sites are here
We are delighted to announce that The Compassionate Friends has teamed up with the world's largest outdoor advertising company, JC Decaux, and advertising and branding agency, The Raised Eyebrow Society, to launch our first campaign raising awareness of parental bereavement.
The hard-hitting posters will deal with the reality of experiencing the death of a child and some of the challenges surrounding child loss. We seek to raise awareness of our charity among grieving parents and families who could access our peer support and to help the general public to understand the difficulties faced by parents and families after the tragedy of the death of a son or daughter.
These huge, illuminated digital posters will begin to be displayed at key roadside sites from 27 February for two weeks.
Each digital poster will be in a different location and they will be rolling advertisements shared for 30 seconds or so at a time. We know that they will be over 200 roadside drive-by sites around the UK, including
- Wandsworth Tower, London
- The Lucozade Landmark, Brentford
- Cromwell Road, London
- A33 - Millbrook Road West, Southampton
- Putney Tower, London
- A61 Granville Square, Hanover Way and Savile Street, Sheffield
- A71 Calder Road and A8 Edinburgh Arch, Edinburgh
- A4161 - Newport Road, Cardiff
- A4 Bath Road, Bristol
- Manchester Tower, Salford
- A5103: Princess Parkway, Manchester
- The Torch, Chiswick, M4
- Birmingham Towers and A4540 Ladywood Middleway, Birmingham
- ....and many more drive-by sites throughout the UK
The full range of sites can be accessed here. If you spot any in your local area, please feel free to let us know and do take a photo to send in to us. You can email it to us at info@tcf.org.uk. Thank you.
The campaign has been gifted to The Compassionate Friends on a pro bono basis and there are no costs for our charity.
This is a wonderful opportunity to reach out to grieving parents and families who may not know about the peer support available to them, and to raise awareness of The Compassionate Friends as the national charity offering support to grieving parents and their families.
You can get involved too!
We will be running short 11 second films on our social media newsfeeds throughout the 2 weeks of the campaign. Please help us reach more grieving families by sharing them widely. Thank you.
We would like to warmly thank everyone at JC Decaux, The Raised Eyebrow Society and all the designers and artists who have made this campaign possible.
Why not join a TCF Walk ?
As we look ahead to Spring and to
better weather, TCF volunteers will be offering organised, led walks in many
parts of the country. A limited number are taking place soon but the frequency
will increase as the weather improves.
Our walks have grown in popularity and now provide support to complement the more established help offered already by our wonderful charity.
Joining a TCF walk can be an easier step to take towards comfort and support; perhaps less daunting than being in a room face to face with other bereaved parents and siblings.
During a walk, many find it less difficult to talk about deeply personal matters shoulder to shoulder, rather than face to face in a room.
If you’re a dad, brother or grandfather especially, I would encourage you to give one of our walks a try. If you’re a partner or sister, again, it may help the men in your family to make them aware of our walks.
I say this through my own experience and first contact with TCF.
For any bereaved parent or sibling who is feeling apprehensive about reaching out for support, a walk with others who have suffered a similar loss and who understand, might well be a good first step. Literally!
TCF will publicise the walks on the website at www.tcf.org.uk/walks as they become available through our various channels to give everyone the opportunity to join our walking community.
London Walks
I’m very much looking forward to restarting the London walks this Spring. I plan to start on Saturday 22nd April then continue every four weeks or so until the Autumn.
As in previous years, the walks will follow our tried and tested format, meeting at 11am at a mainline railway station then finish around 4pm to give those living outside London the opportunity to come along.
We will see some famous landmarks but also some less well-know, hidden gems which I’ve discovered and will share with you.
The opening of the Elizabeth Line (Crossrail) now gives us the opportunity to quickly reach parts of the Capital previously difficult for us to access, for example, Canary Wharf and the Isle of Dogs; both fascinating.
The first walk, as previously mentioned, on Saturday 22nd April, will be to Richmond, specifically to visit the amazing Isabella Plantation. In my view, this is the best time to go there, when many of the plants, especially azaleas & rhododendron are in full bloom. To be surrounded by the beauty of nature, the Plantation awash with colour, is magical and healing.
This walk was our first of 2022 and proved very popular. Richmond is only a short hop from Waterloo with the option to join at either. Full details to be published soon!
The second walk will be on 20th May in Central London. I’m putting the finishing touches to this walk & it will be publicised through the various TCF channels including the website. This walk is brand new and will include some quirky features many will never have seen before so please save the date.
Finally, to those who have joined a London walk before, I’m very much looking forward to seeing you again. Many of you I have known for six years and I count as my compassionate friends.
For those who have never joined one of our walks before, or perhaps, any form of TCF support, please come along on 22nd April or 20th May if you can. You will find yourselves in what I call, “ the best company “, where there are no awkward conversations. If you come on your own, you will soon find yourself welcomed by others in the group and find the support offered by our walking community.
by Terry Ahern
The TCF 2.5 Challenge is back on May 20th - 21st
The TCF 2.5 Challenge is our annual fundraiser and gives you the chance to get involved in doing something challenging, fun or silly to raise funds for us to run the Helpline, support groups and retreats.
Use the numbers 2 and 5 to celebrate our 250 fantastic peer to peer supporters. Come up with your own challenge and get your friends and family involved on the weekend of May 20th and 21st.
See what you can come up with this year. Maybe try something new? Butterfly lengths at your local pool. A book sale. Silence. Jumps. Hops. Karate kicks. Trampoline jumps. Register here to get involved:
Auction of Lizzie's Nissan Figaro
Kirk Mawer, bereaved father of Lizzie, contacted us to let us know they intend to sell her Nissan Figaro and, with real generosity, donate the proceeds of the sale to The Compassionate Friends.
The Figaro Shop who is handling the auction says, "We were hugely saddened to hear of the passing of one of our customers, Lizzie, who had trusted us to look after her beloved Figaro. A vibrant young woman who had had a very full and active life, including living in Australia for a while, Lizzie loved her Figaro. Like many owners, it brought a smile to her face, and she enjoyed being a member of the Figaro Owners’ Club.
2023 breaks for bereaved parents in France
One of the most difficult things for us to do after the death of a son or daughter is to go away on holiday...having to see all those 'complete' families can be just unbearable. So in 2022, The Compassionate Friends (TCF) were very pleased to form a new relationship with Jack and Margaret Reckitt who have a holiday and retreats business, Manoir Mouret, in South West France. In 2023 they are offering TCF three weeks for Compassionate Friends members to have a break, at no charge.
In August 2022 our first group of TCF members spent a week at Manoir Mouret and experienced not only the peaceful rural property itself but also the companionship of being in a safe supportive space with other bereaved parents. Some of the parents have kindly shared their thoughts about their break, TCF Parents Feedback (go to Section 5 to read the feedback)
During each TCF week the only guests at Manoir Mouret are TCF members. You can talk together and share your stories if you want or keep more private if you wish. The weeks are not TCF run events and no TCF volunteers or staff will be there in that capacity - but you will know you are among others who 'get it'.
In 2023 the three TCF weeks at Manoir Mouret will be one week during the school holidays for families with school age children and two for adults only.
Family Week –29 July to 5 August 2023
The week of 29 July to 5 August 2023 will be our first TCF family week at Mouret. It is for TCF families with at least 1 school aged child (18 and under).
Manoir Mouret is made up of 4 individual self-catering properties of different sizes, (sleeping from 4 people to 10 people) so up to 4 families will have their own private holiday home for the week but share outside spaces such as the pool, tennis court and gardens with the other TCF families.
Parents Only Weeks – 3-10 June 2023 & 23-30 September 2023
3-10 June and 23-30 September will be weeks for parents. There will be no children staying at Manoir Mouret during these weeks and only bereaved parents will be there.
Please note that for the adult weeks it is ok to go on your own or you might prefer to go with others - perhaps one other or a few parents from a TCF support group or you might have met others at a retreat weekend or support day...you could share one of the gites perhaps or the main house and maybe organise your travel together.
We have put some information together with Jack and Margaret which will hopefully answer some questions you may have including what to do next if you are interested in learning more and/or staying at Mouret in 2023. You can find this at www.manoirmouretretreats.com/tcf2023.
There is also some information in our charity's newsletter, TCF News Winter 2022 edition.
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Each year thousands of parents suffer the loss of a son or a daughter. Please help us to support families in their time of greatest need.
